MATMOS - A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure

California: home of the rich and famous, big blond beefy surfers, porn stars and greasy rockers. Definitely not your natural place to breed intelligent, adventurous electronic bands. However, four years ago, M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel released one of the most daring album under the enigmatic pseudonym of Matmos. Constructed around a small collection of sound sources, their self-titled album took everyone by surprise, and received critical acclaim worldwide. Now, the band introduce their fourth album, A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure, breaking once again all the rules in the politically correct bible.
San Francisco-based Matmos put their creation techniques to the test once more, as they infiltrate the medical world to collect unusual samples. A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure is almost entirely built around sounds either generated by machines or reaction to treatments, or collected during surgery. This may well sounds uninviting, but Daniel and Schmidt create some strangely attractive atmospheres out of unlikely sources. The opening track, Lipostudio (And So On…) uses recordings of liposuction equipment and anaesthesia ventilators to populate this groove-ridden, jazz-influenced track. Elsewhere, human bones and skull are used to create a poly-rhythmic song (Memento Mori), or noises resulting of plastic surgery and rhinoplasty provide an interestingly iconoclastic background for the electro California Rhinoplasty. Other sources include reactive eye surgery (L.A.S.I.K.), acupuncture (Ur Tchun Tan Tse Qi) or a hearing test booth (Spondee). Daniel and Schmidt use these atypical resources as a basis for their music, sometimes adding layers of electric guitars, voice samples or other more conventional instruments. Matmos have developed, over the years, a particular way of composing and producing sonic art, reflecting the interest of both members for unusual settings. A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure is a melting pot of unexpected noises, rhythms and voices, carefully put together by Daniel and Schmidt.
Matmos have pushed the boundaries of electronic music forward since the release of their eponymous first album, and A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure is a further proof of their credibility as creative artists.